Reply With QuoteYes. Me and the wife sat on the 'Gaffers' table for lunch at Barnfield along with Darren Bentley, Ian Woan and Billy Mercer. We chatted about general stuff and then I took the opportunity to meet the players and have a chat with them.Originally Posted by Altobelli
After lunch we has a good hour with SD chatting about the club, players, training ground, the future etc. I raised the point from the interview with Garlick the week before where he said there was on £24m in the bank and he basically confirmed that. Pointing out how much it cost to actually run the club from players and staff wages, including the first team and various other squads. Ground maintenance and improvements (Filling both corners in). He also mentioned the costs involved in travelling around the country for away matches admitting that for most away games they got the train.
he did say that the days of a 'long term' manager at one club was over and that the premiership would adopt the European approach were they change managers whenever the owners feel like it, sometimes irrespective of results.
I pointed out that the club were victims of their own success by finishing 7th last year and now the fans expected more. he said that fans should be more realistic with the club and we are punching above our weight in the Premiership. he loved the loyalty of the fans that attend home and away but basically the whole thing came down to funding. We are competing against clubs owned by Billionaires with home gates of 30 - 40 thousand.
He was very proud of the new training ground but had no direct evidence that it had helped in attracting new players.
I asked him about some purchases at great cost and why they were not playing. He told me that he needed two players for every position to cover injuries and that players were selected on training ground performance although he placed great emphasis on continuity.
What I was impressed with was the atmosphere on the day with all of the players (Except 1) being really friendly and went out of their way to chat to me and the wife. Tom Heaton was particularity friendly and a really nice guy.
My personal view is that SD is a young manager with little high level managerial experience working on a limited budget. My only 'eye-brow' raising moment was when I found out that he goes home after every game and drives back up on the Wednesday which seemed a bit 'Part-Time' to me.
I got the feeling that SD feels we should accept our membership of the Premiership irrespective of the position that we are in the table. Based on a number of factors, mainly money available, (Not just purchase fee but sometimes stupid salary) we are fortunate to be where we are. The premiership is NOT a level playing field.
